Arizona

February 9 and 10

The 9^th was one of those “take care of business” days getting settled in Tucson. We have so much to see while we are here! Today we drove south to Tubac, Arizona’s oldest European community founded in 1752 as a presidio. The Tubac Art Festival turned out to be a good find. This juried art show has taken place every February since the 1950’s. We spent a couple of hours walking up and down the isles and were really pleased with the high quality of the artists. Norm and I bought a couple of whimsical art pieces from Robert Shields of Shields and Yarnell as a gift. We all remembered seeing him as a mime on the variety shows on TV. He said the life of an artist wins hands down over that of an being an entertainer. In the afternoon we went to the Tubac Presidio State Historic Park. The Tohono O’odham/Pima Indians were living in this area when Father Kino was traveling north from Mexico and building mission communities in late 1600’s. The Pima Indians invited him to this area and he began building a mission here in 1691. The Spaniards began to settle here in the 1730’s. The conquistador, De Anza, was the second commander of the presidio and organized the overland expedition that led to the founding of San Francisco. I love how history comes alive with travels! Throughout these early years the area was full of unrest with the Pima chief stirring up a revolt and the Apaches leading raids from time to time. However, by 1860, it was part of the US and the largest town in Arizona. It lays claim to the first school house in Arizona and it had the first printing press. We went into the small adobe row house that is still standing and was a very common structure. The last woman to live there died in the 1989. Our last stop was to see the Tumacacori Mission. A church was started by Father Kino in 1691. The adobe church standing today was started in 1800 and the ruins are still very imposing today.

February 11
For Norm’s birthday we went into downtown Tucson. We found the visitor center to pick up a copy of the walking tour and hit the streets. One of the highlights was taking a step back in time to the Presidio San Agustin del Tucson. A short talk by a docent gave us enough information to get a picture of what the area looked like in the 1700‘s. The fort was started in 1775, and by the late 1770’s, the 11 acre fort was completed with ten foot high adobe walls totally surrounding it. The fort marked the northwestern edge of the Spanish frontier. They have reconstructed some walls and you can see where the original walls were. They found the ruins of a sweat house dating back 2400 years ago. They have found corn, an agricultural crop, dating back to 2200 BC. This is the oldest identified site in North America. This southern part of Arizona didn’t become part of the US until the Gadson Purchase was made with Mexico so we could build a southern route for the railroad. We also walked into the old Congress Hotel built in 1919. The floor in the café is made of 1000’s of pennies lying side by side. It became famous when Dillinger and his gang rented rooms here. As luck would have it, the building caught fire and they had to escape out the window with the help of firemen. Their heavy suitcases filled with submachine guns and bulletproof vests alerted the fireman. Also, the gang was recognized from a story in True Detective Magazine and they were soon arrested.
Norm picked out the Bamboo Club Café for his birthday lunch. He had fond memories of Asian food from his working days in Phoenix. We weren’t disappointed!
Before heading back to the Manor, we drove through the Barrio Historico neighborhood which was the one of the original neighborhoods for the “working people.” The darling small bungalows are being redone and are painted all colors of the rainbow, subdued hues of course. A few street later we found a couple of streets where the more wealthy families lived in larger homes. It’s nice to see them being restored. Much of the neighborhood was demolished when they built the Convention Center.


Tumacacori Mission





Father Kino and Me

 　
　


Adobe Walls of Tucson Precidio